Post by Melissa Kane on Nov 22, 2006 17:18:43 GMT
Okay, I know I wasn't enamoured with the movie, but I got a hankering to read Douglas Adams' books. I was fortunate enough to have found the "trilogy of five" on sale all together for a bargain price at a local bookstore. Then, I set about reading them all back-to-back... How very odd these books are. Odd in a good way, mostly.
"The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" (and if you've seen the film, you already know the basic plot of this one) centres around the Earthman, Arthur Dent, who is rescued seconds before Earth s destroyed by the paper-pushing aliens, the Vogons, for a hyperspace bypass, by his friend and stranded-for-15-years-on-Earth alien, Ford Prefect. They hitch a lift on the Vogon craft sent to destroy the planet and, from there, Arthur and Ford are sent lurching all across space. They end up catching a lift on a craft recently stolen by one of Ford's childhood friends, and now the fugitive President Of The Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and his assistant, Trillan (formerly Tricia McMillan of Earth and the girl Arthur almost managed to woo before Zaphod dropped into the fancy dress party they were at and whisked her off into the galaxy).
"The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe" follows the continuing adventures of the five main characters (All of the above characters plus my personal fave, Marvin The Paranoid Android. What a cool creation he was!!) as they discover Zaphod's unfathomable mission, the reason why his brain has been split between two heads, eat at the strangest place in the galaxy and generally watch things getting weird without them asking them to.
"Life, The Universe And Everything" continues the trend, as Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin discover a heinous plot to destroy the other planets in the Universe with the "ultimate weapon" by some aliens, the Krikkit, who just want to be left alone. The Universe made an alliance and trapped their planet in a kind of time-stasis (time slowed to a crawl for the creatures on the planet) which could only be unsealed by the Wikkit Key. Krikkit's killer robots are busily scouring the Universe to round up the pieces of the Key to open the Wikkit Gate and unleash the Krikkit people on the Universe once more. This is where the story becomes to get hopelessly tangled as time is travelled backwards, forwards and sideways, yet is, interestingly, this is also the funniest of all the books. Comic highlights are Marvin's hilarious conversations with the swamp-mattress, and Arthur's "madness" brought on by the appearance of Ford Prefect- again!, and Slartibartfast's out-there way of working out problems.
"So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish", the fourth of the trilogy, is in my humble opinion by far the worst. It is set back on Earth, or a version of it which exists in one of the many different dimensions of the Universe. Arthur is there, back on an Earth which isn't really Earth. The destruction of the planet, now some years in the past, was put down to mass hysteria, and the humans have just gotten along with the business of living. But Atrhur has fallen in love with a woman who senses things are not right and together they try to solve the mystery of the missing dolphins, who vacated the planet just before the "mass hysteria" and did not return. Naturally, they wind up in space for the answers. Fort Prefect and Marvin wander into the tale a little later, but of Zaphod and Trillian there is little said. It just sort of lumbers along without actually doing much.
"Mostly Harmless" is complicated in so many ways and centres mostly on an incarnation of Trillian, not our Trillian but plain ol' Tricia McMillan - an Earthbound TV reporter, who, in her dimension, missed out on joining Zaphod in space. And Arthur, who simutaneously lost the woman he loved to time and space, and crash landed on a backwater planet where he is revered for his sandwich-making skill. It's when the time-travelling Trillian, this time its our Trillian having become a galactic newswoman, tracks Arthur down and lumbers him with a daughter named Random that he never knew he had. And Fort Prefect, as ever, is in trouble and discovers a terrible new version of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy which threatens to destroy all he holds dear. Ford drags Arthur into his quest, naturally enough, and all tumble toward a pretty downbeat ending. This time, there is no Zaphod and no Marvin.
Mostly, I enjoyed the series. There's no doubting Douglas Adams' pedigree as a fantastic author (R.I.P. Douglas)! He makes the ludicrous seem plausible and the plausible seem ridiculous. And his attention to detail is brilliant!
Has anyone here read any of them? What did you think?
'Lissa.
"The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" (and if you've seen the film, you already know the basic plot of this one) centres around the Earthman, Arthur Dent, who is rescued seconds before Earth s destroyed by the paper-pushing aliens, the Vogons, for a hyperspace bypass, by his friend and stranded-for-15-years-on-Earth alien, Ford Prefect. They hitch a lift on the Vogon craft sent to destroy the planet and, from there, Arthur and Ford are sent lurching all across space. They end up catching a lift on a craft recently stolen by one of Ford's childhood friends, and now the fugitive President Of The Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and his assistant, Trillan (formerly Tricia McMillan of Earth and the girl Arthur almost managed to woo before Zaphod dropped into the fancy dress party they were at and whisked her off into the galaxy).
"The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe" follows the continuing adventures of the five main characters (All of the above characters plus my personal fave, Marvin The Paranoid Android. What a cool creation he was!!) as they discover Zaphod's unfathomable mission, the reason why his brain has been split between two heads, eat at the strangest place in the galaxy and generally watch things getting weird without them asking them to.
"Life, The Universe And Everything" continues the trend, as Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin discover a heinous plot to destroy the other planets in the Universe with the "ultimate weapon" by some aliens, the Krikkit, who just want to be left alone. The Universe made an alliance and trapped their planet in a kind of time-stasis (time slowed to a crawl for the creatures on the planet) which could only be unsealed by the Wikkit Key. Krikkit's killer robots are busily scouring the Universe to round up the pieces of the Key to open the Wikkit Gate and unleash the Krikkit people on the Universe once more. This is where the story becomes to get hopelessly tangled as time is travelled backwards, forwards and sideways, yet is, interestingly, this is also the funniest of all the books. Comic highlights are Marvin's hilarious conversations with the swamp-mattress, and Arthur's "madness" brought on by the appearance of Ford Prefect- again!, and Slartibartfast's out-there way of working out problems.
"So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish", the fourth of the trilogy, is in my humble opinion by far the worst. It is set back on Earth, or a version of it which exists in one of the many different dimensions of the Universe. Arthur is there, back on an Earth which isn't really Earth. The destruction of the planet, now some years in the past, was put down to mass hysteria, and the humans have just gotten along with the business of living. But Atrhur has fallen in love with a woman who senses things are not right and together they try to solve the mystery of the missing dolphins, who vacated the planet just before the "mass hysteria" and did not return. Naturally, they wind up in space for the answers. Fort Prefect and Marvin wander into the tale a little later, but of Zaphod and Trillian there is little said. It just sort of lumbers along without actually doing much.
"Mostly Harmless" is complicated in so many ways and centres mostly on an incarnation of Trillian, not our Trillian but plain ol' Tricia McMillan - an Earthbound TV reporter, who, in her dimension, missed out on joining Zaphod in space. And Arthur, who simutaneously lost the woman he loved to time and space, and crash landed on a backwater planet where he is revered for his sandwich-making skill. It's when the time-travelling Trillian, this time its our Trillian having become a galactic newswoman, tracks Arthur down and lumbers him with a daughter named Random that he never knew he had. And Fort Prefect, as ever, is in trouble and discovers a terrible new version of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy which threatens to destroy all he holds dear. Ford drags Arthur into his quest, naturally enough, and all tumble toward a pretty downbeat ending. This time, there is no Zaphod and no Marvin.
Mostly, I enjoyed the series. There's no doubting Douglas Adams' pedigree as a fantastic author (R.I.P. Douglas)! He makes the ludicrous seem plausible and the plausible seem ridiculous. And his attention to detail is brilliant!
Has anyone here read any of them? What did you think?
'Lissa.